What is this? Plus, some random pics

[Allenw]

I'll do that - once the snow melts. Best guess is 10' x 14'. Got probably 3" so far and another round coming in Mon & Tues.

I didn't have any snow here, just missed getting some by about twenty miles.

 

[gcreekrch]

Looks to me like the center section in the back with the grating on the bottom was a separate section... opened up for the cattle/calves to be loaded on the back of a bigger truck... like our old 2 ton GMC truck or something... that was on the "back of the truck part... the sides probably were against solid sides and front of a combination type grain truck that had shorter sides... then they made some trucks with "fold up sides" for hauling cattle.....there were alot of them around years ago. Backed the truck up to a big mound of dirt for easier loading or up to a chute made for loading... like @kenny thomas said... it was common years ago that most all trucks had beds that cattle could be hauled in... and they would "jump up" a foot or so to load in..... then the "cattle racks" were taken off so the truck could be used for stuff like hauling hay or grain or manure or something....

Looks like that center section slides up and down. Thinking the boards that made up the rest of the rack have rotted away or been removed. It may have done double duty as a creep feeder then.

 

[Ouachita]

I've seen similar homebuilt contraptions that my hillbilly brothers build and install onto a dump trailer, and then go make the big bucks doing hurricane and tornado debris cleanup.

 

[sstterry]

My Papaw claims we are kin to the dalton gang.

That explains a lot!

 

[TCRanch]

I didn't have any snow here, just missed getting some by about twenty miles.

Ended up with a good 4" and another round Mon/Tues. Yes, please!

 

[Mark Reynolds]

But how in the world would the cattle fit? That opening isn't very high. Unless it was just when they loaded/sold calves?

Skycrane.

 

[greybeard]

Skycrane means something completely different to me and other Sikorsky folks.



I was thinking maybe the steel cage thing may have been an attempt at a home built creep feeder..

It looks awful long to fit on even a stake bed truck, tho some people made one to fit on a 16' bumper pull lowboy trailer, and there was a company that built them commercially for awhile, but heavier made than that one.

 

[greybeard]

I talked to Skyhightree a couple of months ago. Like all the rest of us, he's had some ups and downs in his life but is pushing ahead nonetheless.

 

[Allenw]

Ended up with a good 4" and another round Mon/Tues. Yes, please!

I ended up with seven tenths rain in the rain gauge here. Things look much better then they did this time last year.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Skycrane means something completely different to me and other Sikorsky folks.

View attachment 39175

I was thinking maybe the steel cage thing may have been an attempt at a home built creep feeder..

It looks awful long to fit on even a stake bed truck, tho some people made one to fit on a 16' bumper pull lowboy trailer, and there was a company that built them commercially for awhile, but heavier made than that one.

@greybeard, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking to get the cattle into the 'cage'.

 

[greybeard]

Few people know that helicopter is officially called a CH-54 Tarhe. Named after an American Indian Chief who was also known as "the Crane'.

An interesting aircraft, which the US military no longer uses as the ch53E can lift about 11,000 lbs more.

 

[TCRanch]

It's a set of homemade steel stock racks for a wheat truck. The center section at the back, where the expanded metal is would slide up to load at a chute.

You are correct! Posted it on Facebook and one of my neighbors, now in his mid 70's, said he put up a lot of hay in that old barn and helped haul cattle with the rack in a 67 Chevy. He texted me later and yes, it was a wheat truck and they hauled them to western KS in that contraption. I know they raised Herefords, but dang, it still seems too small to load 'em.

 

[TCRanch]

Just saw this on Facebook Marketplace. It's a '66 Chevy selling for $3000. Yup, now I can see how it would fit.

 

[greybeard]

It sure ain't like the old poor folks ones where the stock could just about step right up into the truck bed. This would been about 1969 too. I must have been on leave from USMC if the photo date is right. Not many at a time but we hauled lots of calves in that old Ford